Sept. 30 through 8 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 7
But Only by Complying with Strict Requirements
TEA Extends Funding Guarantees
To Counteract Enrollment Declines
The TEA announced (Oct. 1) that it is extending (by an extra six weeks) the “hold harmless” provision that has kept districts and charters from seeing their state funding reduced due to pandemic-induced enrollment declines — but only for districts that:
- Offer in-person instruction options for any Texas family that desires it, and
- Demonstrate a good faith effort to allow on-campus attendance, and
- Identify students who are “missing” — and determine where they are located.
The revised hold harmless period extends, from the first 12 weeks of the current semester to 18 weeks, a period that for most districts will encompass the entirety of the first semester.
TEA said it will address whether further funding adjustments for the second semester — when the winter break concludes — are needed based upon information and data gathered between now and January 2021.
Although the TEA’s announcement terms the enrollment declines thus far as “slight” — many districts, especially those in larger, urban areas, have been reporting significant enrollment declines and they are having difficulty locating students.
Future Enrollment Projections
The TEA also announced (Oct. 1) it is giving districts and charters from Oct. 15 to Dec. 14 to submit estimates of what they believe their student attendance counts will be for each year of the upcoming biennium (School Years 2021-22 and 2022-23), including estimates of how they believe the pandemic could impact their enrollment for those two school years.
Failure to meet the deadline will result in the TEA substituting its own enrollment projections that would not take COVID-19 considerations into account.
The TEA plans to submit the projected enrollment data to the Legislature by March 1, 2021.
Other Coronavirus News
Positive Cases
The state’s public school coronavirus database reported that (as of Sept. 27) there were 5,725 cumulative positive COVID-19 public school student cases and 4,132 positive public school staff cases. Students who test positive, but are being taught in off-campus settings, are not included in the reports. (click here for latest data.)
The data includes info from individual districts, but only — due to student privacy mandates — info from districts that have 50 or more students.
The Houston Chronicle pointed out (Oct. 2) that the cumulative 9,857 total coronavirus cases among students and staff reported for schools statewide didn’t match the 7,130 cases reported for individual ISDs and charters, making it “unclear, at least for now, where the rest of the roughly 2,700 positive cases have occurred …”
And the Texas State Teachers Association’s Clay Robinson recently called the state’s report of COVID-19 “misleadingly low” — because districts are reporting only what they have heard from students or employees who voluntarily report that they or someone they know had tested positive.
Several school districts are reporting more detailed info. Dallas ISD, for instance, maintains an online “dashboard” that includes the numbers of positive cases among students and staff that is searchable by school facility, zip code, school board member district, etc.
Immunizations
The Texas Department of State Health Services has posted info about allowing parents to submit the required conscientious exemption affidavit that has been electronically notarized to the department for approval instead of a notary handstamping the document. The change was authorized under a gubernatorial pandemic disaster declaration.